WINERY PROFILES

From the vineyard to the bottle, Chateau Margene (Cabernet Sauvignon and Cab based blends) produces small lots of luxury wines that exhibit intense varietal character. We invite you to visit our beautiful vineyard and winery to enjoy our latest releases. It is open Friday-Monday from 11am to 5pm (except holidays). Appointments for our “Barrel Room Experience”, a tour & tasting with winemaker Michael at the estate winery in Creston, can be made by calling 805-238-2321 or emailing info@chateaumargene.com. Additionally, you can now taste our wines at our Morro Bay tasting room, Chateau Margene: A Family of Wines, at 845 Embarcadero.

The various microclimates within the Paso Robles viticulture region (AVA) offer diversity of temperature, elevation and soils. In addition to the estate vineyard, grapes are purchased from eight unique vineyards on both the east and west sides of Highway 101. The estate vineyard benefits from the Templeton Gap influence. From April 1 -October 10, the Creston area is consistently ranked as the 2nd coolest growing area within the AVA (data compiled from PRWCA's Weather Summary - Growing Degree Days). Day to night temperature swings between 40 and 50 degrees are the norm during the growing season. The Pinot Noir grapes are sourced from our Monterey County neighbor to the north in a cooler AVA called the Santa Lucia Highlands.

"Great wine starts with great fruit. It all starts in the vineyard," says Michael. "We shoot and cluster thin the crop to control the level of production, deficit irrigate to control the amount of water to the vines, do leaf removal to get more sunlight to the fruit."

Once in the winery, all grapes are hand sorted prior to destemming and all fermentation is done is small open topped bins. Extended sur lie aging is practiced and French Oak barrels are the dominant aging vessels.